


The Other Side Of The Coin

by respoftw



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Canon Divergent AU, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 06:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10633998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: An Alternate Take on Rising where John and Rodney don't leave for Atlantis.





	

Rodney bore the farewells with as much good grace as he could muster, which was none at all. He knew that he couldn't go to Atlantis, at least not in the first wave where the possibility of it being a one way mission was too high to risk, but knowing the reasons why didn't stop him from feeling envious.

A whole new galaxy to explore, to mine for scientific advancements...Rodney would have given almost anything to be a part of it. _Almost_ anything.

Sucking it up, he boarded the helicopter back to McMurdo without looking back, his part in the story done. For now, at least. Maybe if the little Czech guy and Colonel Whatsisface didn't mess up too badly he could join them at some point in the future. Maybe. Rodney snorted at the idiocy of his wish.

"Penny for them?"

Rodney blinked, tearing his gaze away from the window of endless white and his thoughts away from the unfairness of it all to look at the source of the question.

"Your thoughts."  The pilot of the helicopter grinned at him, his eyes hidden behind aviator sunglasses but his hair unmistakable.

"I know you," Rodney pointed at him, "you're the idiot that sat down in the control chair." He clicked his fingers, trying to remember. "Major Shlemp, no, wait something to do with sheep."

"Sheppard," the answer was drawled. "But you can call me John."

"Dr Rodney McKay," Rodney introduced himself, leaving off the letters after his name took effort but he was trying to be less arrogant these days. It didn't always work but the flash of teeth Major Sheppard -- John -- showed him suggested that he'd succeeded.

"I remember," John said. "You were the one in the orange fleece."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Yes, it's orange. I fail to see why everyone insists on commenting on that. It's also warm and practical. It's a science expedition, not a fashion show."

"Hey," John held his right hand up in mock surrender. "I liked it. Orange's a good colour on you."

Rodney hummed in disbelief but didn't argue. He was too depressed to argue.

"So," John continued, "what're you headed back to McMurdo for? I got the impression that you guys still had a few days left up here before we all headed back to Cheyenne."

"They read you in?" Rodney didn't know why he was surprised. The way John had lit that control chair up, Elizabeth would have been a fool not to recruit him.

John nodded. "Kinda hard to believe but yeah. Crazy aliens with snakes in their head, wormholes through space and time. I'm reevaluating the episodes of Wormhole X-theme big time. But you didn't answer my question, Doc."

" _Rodney_."

"Ok. You didn't answer my question, _Rodney_."

Rodney sighed. "I'm going home," he admitted.

John's eyebrows shot up. "Home? I have it under pretty good authority that anyone that doesn't want to go through the Stargate is whacked. And I got the impression that you were pretty damn important back there."

"Yeah, well, sometimes there's more to it."

"Like what?"

Rodney stared at John, trying to work out if he was being facetious.

"Hey, I'm asking honestly," John assured him. "Look, I got a pretty heavy recruitment speech from Dr. Weir that stank of false positivity and a pretty succinct 'say yes or you're an idiot' from General O'Neill. Maybe I want another opinion. You seem like a smart guy. Why'd you say no?"

Rodney answered with one word because that one word was really all there was to it. The only thing in the whole world that rated the use of the word almost in his statement that he would give almost anything. "Madison."

John's eyes darted towards Rodney's ring finger.

"My niece," Rodney clarified. "She's almost two and her parents died a year ago. I'm all the family she has left."

John nodded, understanding immediately. "And it's a one way mission. Or as good as. She's lucky to have you. Not everyone, Uncle or not, would pass up an opportunity like that for their niece."

Rodney shook his head. "If they did, they wouldn't be the kind of person that deserved to go," he said with real feeling. "You got any nieces or nephews?"

John shrugged, looking uncomfortable for the first time since they'd been in the air. "I, ah, I have no idea," he looked at Rodney with a wry smile. "My brother and I haven't spoken since I divorced my wife six years ago. He and my father....let's just say that they didn't handle me deciding to stop hurting Nancy by pretending I was straight very well."

Rodney raised his eyebrow, surprised. "I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to tell me that."

"You're a civilian," John smirked. "Doesn't count."

Rodney shook his head, going back to John's original request for his opinion. "I can't tell you what to do. A big part of me agrees with O'Neill and thinks you'd be an idiot to say no. I don't know you but the fact that you're acting as a glorified taxi driver for me right now suggests that your career isn't going too well. Couple that with the fact that you don't have any family ties..." Rodney shrugged. "But the other part of me? The part of me that regrets every single day the fact that I hadn't spoken to my sister for almost two years before I got the call about the car accident? The part of me that has worked for the US military long enough to know what it feels like to hide that part of who you are? It could very well be a one way mission, Major. You might want to think about any regrets that would bring up."

John went silent after that, staring blankly ahead at the path before them. Rodney went back to staring out the window himself, he didn't mind John's silence. He had, after all, hopefully, given him something to think about.

When they landed at McMurdo fifteen minutes later and John still hadn't said anything, Rodney turned to him before leaving. "Another option?" he said. "Flip a coin. Win/lose, nothing's certain in the end. If you do go, look out for them. They're a - a not terrible bunch of people. And if you don't?" He glanced around the tarmac at the frozen wasteland beyond. "Do yourself a favour and get out of here. Be all you can be or whatever."

John's mouth twitched up in a smile. "That's the army, McKay."

Rodney waved the correction off as he hopped down to the ground. "I don't care. Thanks for the ride, Sheppard."

-*-*-*-

"Sheppard?"

John grinned at the surprise in the voice, taking his sunglasses off to better look at the man who changed his life during the space of a helicopter ride.

"Hey, Rodney. Fancy seeing you here?" He crouched down to greet the little girl in blonde pigtails who was wrapped around Rodney's legs. "And you must be Madison."

"No," Rodney deadpanned, "she's some other two year old that I've abducted and brought to Walmart. What the hell are you doing here?"

John grinned, standing up again. "I took your advice."

"What advice?"

"Flipped a coin." John enjoyed the way Rodney's eyes bugged out at that. "Yeah," he elaborated. "It came down heads so I quit the Air Force, flew out to California and fixed things with my brother. I'm still working on things with my Dad. Don't know if we're ever gonna get there but if we don't it won't be through lack of trying in my part."

Rodney looked stunned but didn't let it slow him down for long. "And the reason you're in Colorado Springs?"

John shrugged. "I got tired of hiding that part of myself. Figured I'd take that meeting with the SGC about contracting that they've been trying to persuade me to come in for and check on the cute physicist I met in Antarctica and see if he'd be interested in a date."

Rodney was stunned silent for a couple of seconds longer at the end of that speech but recovered beautifully

"You sure you don't need to flip a coin on that?" Rodney snarked.

"Nah," John grinned. "That's one decision that I'm pretty sure of."

"Well," Rodney smiled, flustered, and reached down to pick Madison up, settling her on his hip. "Maddie, meet John. He's coming home with us for dinner."

John laughed, delighted, and followed them out the store and into the parking lot.

Best coin toss he'd ever won.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So much writers block! I've mentioned this on tumblr but I'm going to be super busy at work from now until the middle of June with year end accounts and audits so my writing time and my desire to write will likely reduce significantly until things calm down. 
> 
> Just in case anyone starts to worry that I've abandoned ship! Or you might all be happy to get a break from me spamming the tag in which case you can send my work a thank you note :)


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